All the Arts, All the Time

Jasper Johns is first studio artist in 34 years to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

February 14, 2011 | 6:45
am

If a fundamental aim of contemporary visual art is to get out ahead of conventional wisdom and mass opinion and keep the public off-balance, here's some evidence that its most illustrious practitioners have been doing their job: when President Obama presents Jasper Johns with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday at the White House, it will be the first time in 34 years that a painter or sculptor has won the nation's highest civilian honor.

Obama joins John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford as the only presidents who have given a medal to a painter or sculptor. Actually, Ford didn't precisely give a medal to Alexander Calder, the only sculptor honored to date. When he tried in 1976, Calder refused it in protest of U.S. treatment of Vietnam-era draft evaders and deserters; the two had a history that went beyond that. Ford gave Calder the medal -- posthumously -- in 1977.

When it comes to honoring people in the art forms that Culture Monster covers -- art/photography, architecture, classical music/opera, jazz, theater and dance -- Obama, halfway through his term, is setting a vigorous pace. Johns and Yo-Yo Ma, who is also among this year's 15 recipients, bring Obama's artist-honoree total to four, on track for eight in a single term.

The White House has announced that it will stream the ceremony live on its website at 10:30 a.m. Pacific/1:30 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday.

Obama will have to pick it up, though, to beat Gerald Ford's batting average. In 2 1/2 years in office, the man who was ridiculed for playing too much football without a helmet honored seven artists plus arts philanthropist-politician Nelson Rockefeller.

Ronald Reagan, not surprisingly given his Hollywood background, also averaged two medals per year conferred on arts recipients -- 16 in his eight years in office.

The champ, honoring seven artists in his lone opportunity, was John F. Kennedy. In 1963, JFK inaugurated the medal as it is now conceived (Harry Truman had established a precursor in 1945 to honor civilian service during wartime). Actually, it was Lyndon Johnson who presided over the ceremony that December, because Kennedy had been assassinated two weeks earlier. Johnson then awarded seven medals to artists on his own initiative in five-plus years in office.

Kennedy, through his surrogate, dealt out nearly a full artistic house, missing only dance as he honored an architect (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), a photographer (Edward Steichen), a singer (Marian Anderson), two instrumentalists (Pablo Casals and Rudolf Serkin), a man of the theater (playwright Thornton Wilder) and a visual artist (Andrew Wyeth).

The presidential artistic dunce cap is worn by Bill Clinton, who was so caught up in governmental wonkery that he failed to honor an arts figure in eight years, unless you want to count businessman/arts philanthropist David Rockefeller, brother of Nelson.

Richard Nixon gave medals to just two artists in five and a half years in office.

Jimmy Carter honored five artists and George H.W. Bush three in their four years in office; George W. Bush (pictured in 2004 with honoree Rita Moreno) gave four artists medals in eight years.

Below you'll find a list of the 57 Medal of Freedom honorees in the arts by categories, followed by a list of presidents and their arts honorees. Note that the lists include some actors, among them James Cagney, James Stewart and Gregory Peck, who are best known for their screen roles, but who also had significant achievements on stage.